Training Log Archive: jed

Tried to get myself into "aggressive" mode, very cold so took a while but think it was pretty successful.

Glasgow Green. Blast so wanted to try and be aggressive. First 3 good, I was a little more hesitant to 4 check fences when had actually already seen the control. 5 wasn't so good when I was put of by a big group of dogs so went wide. I felt myself tire to 6 and had to force myself to keep pushing. Veered slightly off on 7 but forced myself to kick on for there, especially at the end. Good tough competition with Swiss national team runner Sofie Bachmann running, would like to have been closer but way clear of the rest behind and lots of positives.

Strategy for this area, got myself in a good place to race again.

Queen's Park. Focused hard on my start and cracked it this time but head just not quite thinking fast enough around the next loop. Hesitated into 4 to make sure I went to right bush. Committed on the next two but faffed making decision on 7 and didn't take the best route but did still spike the control confidently. Again felt myself slacking to 8 but pushed on from there until the end. About the same amount down on Sofie. Race not perfect but again some really promising sections.

Pollock. Sofie off about 1min ahead and Rachel about 1min behind. Knew it would be hard to catch Sofie and with the area being a wood I'd need to be clean to ensure Rachel didn't catch me but could be a solo run. Started well, ignoring everyone else going to a different first control. A small miss at 4 but did ignore Dad and Dave faffing and minimised time loss but saw Sofie leaving and was actually almost equal with her on time at this point. I lost a bit of focus though and sped up so lost time of 5. I saw Rachel was still a good amount behind though and those tricky controls to come so set off hard on the road run to 6 but turned a junction too early and took an horrendous route losing almost a minute. Pushed hard though as had to commit and spiked the control when got there. I focused hard on the next few and saw Rachel was actually still behind me. Tried to be careful on the next few but looked at path too early on 11 and lost a further 20secs. From here I knew I'd used all of my lives so had to be super careful not to be caught, very safe routes and even paced on one control but kept my 2nd place which turned into 1st when Sofie had mp (interestingly she said she never checks codes in sprint so shows one place where I leaked time on easy parks especially when descriptions were only on the map!) Good lesson in keeping positive when things have gone wrong as no idea what's going on ahead.
Such fun races, really good pressure racing to top of a great block of training. 5 in a row Glasgow Parks wins against all against different people and won in many different ways.